Riley Newton Draper

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Riley Newton Draper

Birthdate:
Birthplace: Draper, Salt Lake , Utah, United States (USA)
Death: March 14, 1927 (69)
Moroni, Sanpete, Utah, United States (USA)
Place of Burial: Moroni, Moroni City Cemetery, Sanpete, Utah, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of William H Draper and Ruth Hannah Draper
Husband of Eliza Marie Draper; Private and Lena Margretta Draper
Father of Riley Clinton Draper; Marvin Petersen Draper; Eliza Irene Draper; Andrew Maiben Draper; Riley Clinton Draper and 13 others

Managed by: Michael James Page
Last Updated:

About Riley Newton Draper

Riley Newton Draper, was born May 7, 1857, at Draper, Utah. He was the son of William, Jr. and Fanny Newton Draper. In the fall of 1857, the family moved to Spanish Fork, where they lived until 1864. They subsequently moved to Moroni, Sanpete County, Utah, where they lived the rest of their lives.

Riley was seven years old when he arrived in Moroni. From that time on he had to help support his mother and her other children, because of the reverses suffered by his father in this last move, and because of the extraordinary size of his family.

Riley fell in love with Lena Margretta Morley, granddaughter of Isaac Morley, Sr. - the Draper and Morley families had been closely linked since their conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Joseph Smith, Jr. knew and loved both families well. Riley and Margretta were married January 2, 1879.

Riley had scarcely any formal education and nothing to offer to his bride but his hands and a will to work. Wage labor at that time would not bring more than $1.25 for twelve hours. Nevertheless, he faced the future with optimism and confidence. Not long after they were married there began to be talk about constructing a new irrigation canal from the Sanpitch River to irrigate some unclaimed land between Fairview and Fountain Green. Relying upon this talk Riley immediately filed upon a homestead between Moroni and Fountain Green. To perfect a title to this land he had to pay filing fees and live with his family on it continuously for four years.

This he did, and in the meantime he had to earn money to support his family. First, he built a log cabin with a dirt roof on the land to house his growing family, and then he took a job as a section hand on the narrow gauge railroad that ran through the valley. He left home before daylight and did not get home until after dark and he worked seven days a week for the sum of $1.25 a day.

He worked at sheep-shearing in the spring, and by dint of immense labor managed to clear his land and operate a farm. By 1894, seven children were born to him and his wife, two girls and five boys - a family well-adapted to a farm economy. However, tragedy stalked the family. The eldest boys, twins, both died young - one at the age of three, and the other at the age of twelve. In 1897, Riley's wife passed away at the age of thirty-six. The remaining children were either too young or too immature to take on raising a family, so he doubled his efforts to raise the children and work the farm until October 19, 1898, when at the behest of his family he married Eliza Maria Petersen, with whom he subsequently had eight additional children.

Riley was a man of deep convictions and great honor. A fuller account of his life is found in the book "The Mormon Drapers," published by his son Delbert Morley Draper. In the conclusion of the chapter on Riley Newton, Delbert included the following poem, penned by himself, in which he attempted to sum up his feelings about his father's challenging but honorable life:

Father

In the sterile, sun baked valley

He swung his grubbing hoe,

While by his side, his children

Heaped the brush, and thought it fun

To watch the flames, at evening,

Light the sky.

It took five years of bending toil

To break the grip of age old sage

On eighty, arid acres; to dig canals

To carry water to the thirsting grain

Until it waved upon the gray expanse,

A golden sea of gladness

And of hope.

The crop was ripe for harvesting,

But when the reaper came,

The mother who had borne the strain

Of want, and work, and motherhood

Fell ill and died.

A line of dusty wagons followed to the grave

Where clods of earth and alkali

Fell with hollow thud upon the coffin box.

A prayer was said, a marker placed,

And cactus flowers were planted

On the grave.

Dazed and mute, the swinger of the hoe

Bent his back and carried on.

By force of will, he drove his hands

To tasks untried and new,

And though his grief was masked

His voice grew thick, when little eyes

Turned up to him with welling tears

And questions.

Lines of care crossed lines of pain,

But still he worked as if he saw

The broken threads of life unite again.

For thirty years he sowed and reaped

And shared the bounty of his land, and heart,

With others.

And then one spring he died.

Tense at heart, but tearlessly,

His children bore him to his grave

And laid him by their mother.

They planted iris by the cactus flowers

And went their way.

The dearest ties are cut

And yet they walk, as he had walked,

Unmoved by hurts and ills ... If darkness comes,

The sky is lit with fires of sage

And in the light, a deathless figure stoutly swings

A gleaming, grubbing hoe!

Delbert M. Draper

Inscription:

Riley N. Draper

Born May 7, 1857

Died Mar 14, 1927

Note: Headstone marks the graves of wife Lena Margretta Morley and his two eldest sons, Riley Philemon and Riley Philetus.

Burial::

Moroni City Cemetery

Moroni

Sanpete County

Utah, USA

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Draper&GSfn=R...

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Riley Newton Draper's Timeline

1857
May 7, 1857
Draper, Salt Lake , Utah, United States (USA)
1871
1871
Age 13
1879
January 2, 1879
Age 21
1880
January 2, 1880
Moroni, Sanpete, Utah, United States
1882
January 9, 1882
Fountain Green, Sanpete, Utah, United States
1882
Fountain Green, Sanpete, Utah, United States
1884
May 7, 1884
Moroni, Sanpete, Utah, United States
1886
September 15, 1886
Moroni, Sanpete, Utah Territory, United States
1888
November 23, 1888
Moroni, Sanpete, Utah, United States